2026 Platform Roadmap

Last updated 6/12/2026

This roadmap outlines our priorities and planned work for the YaleSites platform in 2026. Our focus is on delivering meaningful improvements to the platform while maintaining stability and addressing community needs.

Please note that certain features or work may be subject to shifts or removals. We advise against planning work solely based on the roadmap. 

On Our Radar

This is work we are aware of, but we have no timetable on when or if it will be worked on. The YaleSites platform relies on a governance committee and listens to community feedback to help direct future work priorities.

• Profile Template Improvements 

  • We’re would like to explore enhancements to the profile template, including support for different profile image sizes and a redesigned meta area with greater flexibility.

• Event Template Improvements 

  • Potential improvements include additional fields to display more event information, better design integration between headers and images to prevent early text wrapping, the option to exclude images entirely, and support for large banner images.

• Mobile UI Improvements 

  • We’re would like to address padding inconsistencies and other design refinements across different screen sizes to enhance the mobile experience.

• Background Colors for 1-Column Sections 

  • We’re considering adding the ability to apply background colors to 1-column sections, providing greater design flexibility and improved visual hierarchy options.

Upcoming/Planned

This is work we are committed to doing, but it hasn’t been picked up yet. These items will likely not be in an upcoming release and will take some time before they’re in our users’ hands.

• Drupal 11 Upgrade 

  • We’re preparing to upgrade YaleSites to Drupal 11, which ensures the platform remains secure, stable, and aligned with the latest web standards. This work will kick off after our Drupal 10.6 update ships in June.

• Storybook Update 

  • We’re upgrading our design system infrastructure (Storybook) to the latest version, which enables automated visual testing and ensures we can catch design inconsistencies before they reach your sites.

• Single Directory Components (SDC) and Drupal Canvas 

  • We’re researching into implementing emerging technologies that will unlock the ability to use YaleSites design patterns across different platforms beyond Drupal, including ReactJS and other enterprise systems. This work is dependent on completing the Drupal 11 and Storybook upgrades.

• Views Block Rework 

  • We’re moving away from the one-size-fits-all view block approach and creating separate view blocks tailored to specific use cases. This will make view blocks much cleaner from a UI perspective and allow us to enable them in more sections and areas throughout the platform.

In Progress

These items are actively being worked on by the YaleSites team. You can expect to see these improvements rolling out in upcoming releases.

• Drupal 10.6 Update 

  • We’re updating YaleSites to Drupal 10.6 as a preliminary step toward Drupal 11.

• Drupal AI Migration 

  • We’re migrating the Beacon AI chatbot to the DrupalAI framework. This is a significant infrastructure change that will improve reliability, give site admins more control over chatbot behavior, and set us up to expand AI capabilities across the platform going forward.

• Storybook Reorganization 

  • We’re restructuring Storybook to better host documentation and support accessibility and UAT testing, creating a more robust foundation for our design system.

• Documentation Improvements 

  • We’re investing in comprehensive documentation improvements throughout the year, making it easier to discover how to accomplish tasks and understand platform capabilities.

• UX Research and Discovery 

  • We’re conducting user interviews with YaleSites site owners and content editors to better understand how people are using the platform and where we can make the biggest improvements. This research will inform our roadmap priorities going forward.

Beacon AI

Beacon AI, YaleSites’ integrated AI chatbot assistant, is accessible on every YaleSite upon request. We are currently undergoing a substantial infrastructure update to the service, which is scheduled for release in October 2026.

• Migration to Anthropic via Portkey

  • We’re migrating Beacon AI from its current Azure-based infrastructure to Anthropic’s Claude models, routed through Portkey. This change gives us better model quality, more flexibility in how we manage and route AI requests, and a more sustainable foundation for future improvements to the assistant.

• Drupal AI Module Integration

  • As part of this migration, we’re integrating the Drupal AI module into the platform. This positions us to expand AI capabilities beyond the chat assistant over time, such as automatically generating alt text for uploaded images or supporting other content authoring workflows.